What’s a Good Email Response Rate?

When looking at outbound sales prospecting metrics, most companies track email response rate. What’s a good response rate for a startup?

More than 80% of small businesses, including startups, rely on email as their primary marketing channel. Tracking your email response rate reveals how effectively your emails engage your audience. A good rate can lead to more sales, while a not-so-good rate can mean falling behind on sales goals.

“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches — at scale,” marketing expert David Newman says.

Let’s look at some B2B marketing benchmarks for email and how to optimize response rates for email marketing.

Key Takeaways

• Response rates are a good starting point for measuring your email marketing success. But they need context to fully measure the effectiveness of this channel.
• To boost lead generation and customer acquisition, send emails to the right people. Don’t depend on the “spray and pray” method, which involves sending untargeted, generic emails and praying for the best results.
• Crafting email campaigns that lead to conversations with customers should be a key goal.

What Is an Email Response Rate?

Email response rate refers to responses that recipients give to emails that they receive. For example, responses could come in the form of product reviews or ratings, feedback on services, or even answers to surveys or questionnaires, according to email service provider Emma.

“Email response means direct replies — for the most part. This is a very specific type of engagement that requires a lot more from subscribers than a simple click,” says Emma.

It’s worth noting that email response rates and email open rates aren’t the same. As pointed out by Semrush, a provider of digital marketing software, the open rate calculates the percentage of recipients who opened an email. For example, if you send an email to 500 people and 75 of them open it, your email open rate is 15%.

What Is the Average Email Response Rate?

Email response rates vary by industry, email type, time of day, and quality of subject line. A 10 percent response rate is a good rate for startups, with a goal of increasing the rate to at least 15% to 20% over time.

As you analyze email metrics to learn more about your prospects and what they want and need, you can adjust your email strategies to drive more engagement.

• What time of day are your prospects most responsive? If you aren’t sending emails at the right time, your response rate may suffer.
• What type of content resonates with your prospects? For example, focus on two key industry problems and A/B test your emails to single out information that your prospects consider most relevant. Use this same method for product or service benefits and features.
• Which market segments are opening emails and responding? Segment your target audience and organize metrics to match your segmentation. Focus on a certain business challenge or product value, for example, to your audience’s interests and needs.

Wait until you’ve gathered and analyzed a hefty amount of performance data before making big adjustments to your email marketing strategy. Then, test one A/B version at a time. This approach enables you to shift your email strategy without mistaking marketing noise for actual signals.

Email Response Rates vs. Effective Email Engagement

While response rates can measure the performance of email prospecting, this metric will always take a backseat to engagements and conversions. A solid outreach campaign should start conversations with prospects: 

• Does your email messaging resonate with them?
• Can their problem be solved with your product or service?
• Does your product or service align with their business and budget?

Use this long-term view as a basis for reviewing email response rates. Prospects will engage with your emails and participate in a conversation when you understand their goals and challenges.

Keep in mind that effective email outreach doesn't stop with response rates for emails. Rather, it primes a prospect to engage at a deeper level and move further along the buyer journey.